Lock nut, bolt, and the like



y 1935. s. c. DlCKE RHOFF, .JR 7 2,008,274

LOCK NUT, BOLT AND THE LIKE Filed Aug. 1., 1952 /IIIIIIIII.

NM ll 5 A TTORNEYS.

Patented July 16, 1935 PATENT OFFICE LOCK NUT, BOLT, AND THE LIKE SamuelC. Dickerhofi, Jiz, New York, N. Y., as-

signor, by mesne assignments, to Automatic Nut Company, Inc., acorporation of New York Application August 1,

Claims.

vide an improved lock nut, bolt or the like of the type indicated.

More specifically, a certain tolerance is permitted in nuts and boltssold on the market; that is to say, some of the nuts and bolts sold asof a certain size and cut of thread, depart noticeably from the ratedsize and thread cut. The departure may amount to some thousandths of aninch in diameter alone. A more specific object of my invention is toprovide lock nuts, bolts and the like, of the type indicated, that arewell adapted to perform their locking functions in a uniform mannerdespite these permitted tolerances.

The invention can be best explained with reference to the accompanyingdrawing, in which:

Figs. 1 and 2 are respectively a transverse section and an end view of alock nut embodying the preferred form of, and manufactured in accordancewith my invention. Fig. 3 illustrates another form of locking wire andits relation to a bolt or nut thread. Fig. 4, partly in elevation andpartly in section, shows a seated threaded bolt with looking wire seatedin the bolt rather than in the nut. Figs. 5 to 8 and 10 are transversesections of one corner of a nut with a locking wire therein, say abouton the line marked V of Fig. 1. Figs. 9 and 11 are sectionssubstantially at right angles to the sections of Figs. 8 and 10respectively.

Referring first to the lock nut of Figs. 1 and 2: In a hole provided(usually drilled) in the body I of the nut is seated one leg 2 of aresilient bent wire 23, circular in cross section and usually made of asteel considerably harder than the metal composing the nut. The seathole extends substantially parallel to the axis of the nut, and also (atleast in ordinary hexagonal nuts) is usually located in one corner ofthe nut as here illustrated. The hole or seat is made suificiently largeto permit the leg 2 of the wire to tumor oscillate in the hole except asthe wire is restrained as hereinafter described. The exposed or free leg3 of the wire is bent nearly or quite to right angles to the seated leg2, and lies near to '(in fact substantially against) the face of the nutand substantially in a plane parallel to that face; in length, this leg3 is somewhat greater than the distance from the wire seat to thethreaded hole 1932, Serial No. 627,208

in the nut, so that it extends across the nut threads and, when thenutis screwed onto a bolt the leg turns to one side and its free endassumes a position against or between the bolt threads. The free end ofthis leg 3 is provided with a sufficiently wide path of movement acrossthe face of the nut, a path extending to both sides of that radial plane9 of the nut (Fig. 2) which'passes through the leg 2, to permit thisfree end to make such an engagement with the bolt at both sides of thelatter. To look the wire in its seat, the seated leg 2 is provided witha noncircular portion which is more or less embraced by some lockingmeans or looking metal. The arrangement most frequently employedheretofore, at least for steel nuts, and an arrangement peculiarly "wellsuited for my invention, is that illustrated inFig. 1; in this formtheleg 2 of the wire is indented or somewhat widely kerfed at 6 and a'smallpart of the corner of the nut adjacent this depression is pressed ordriven down, more or less into the depression in the wire, as indicatedat 1. Other types of anchoring the wire to the body in which it isseated are disclosed in the Batchelor patent mentioned above however,and still others are more or less readily derivable. The presentinvention applies to them all. ,This looking or anchoring of the wireserves not only to hold the wire in its seat, but also to restrainrotation of the seated leg 2 and thus to impose atorsional stress on theseated leg, as the leg 3 is thrust to one side or the other by a bolt,whereby the free end of the wire makes a biting engagement with the boltthreads when the nut'or bolt moves in the reverse direction. Thus thewire locks the nut in place against accidental movement.

In the specific form of such devices shown in the Batchelor patent thenuts and bolts are reversible; thatis to say, while the wire serves tosecurely lock the nut to the bolt against accidental displacement, thenut (or bolt) can be removed by, say, using a wrench to forcibly turnthe nut or bolt a part of a turn against the thrust of the wire. Thisserves to throw the leg 3 to the opposite side of the bolt and the twocan then be unscrewed, one from the other, as readily as they werescrewed together. This throwing over of the leg 3 from one side of thewire, so that this leg 2 might yield laterally somewhat in a directiongenerally to and from the bolt during the movement of the wire from oneside of the bolt to the other; this helped to relieve the stresses onthe wire during reversal. Furthermore, to relieve the wire of unduetorsional stresses due to the long swing the leg 3 makes in passing fromone side of the bolt to the other, the wire was permitted to have a freeand unimpeded movement, i. e. a movement unaccompanied by torsion on theseated leg, throughout a limited are near its center of movement. Tothis end for example, the metal at l was not struck down far enough tocompletely fill the depression 6, so that the wire might turn freely andunimpeded throughout say, the arc i ll of Fig. 2; at the same timehowever, the metal 6 was struck down far enough to impose a torsionalstress on the seated leg 2 as the leg 3 moved beyond, these limits andinto, the arcs H and it. of Fig. 2. Still further, the bottom of thedepression 6 in the leg 2 was given a convex shape in these devices madeunder the Batchelor' patent prior to my invention, something as shown inthe sectional view of Fig. '7; this further tended to permit a free andunimpeded movement of the wire throughout a certain limited range asmentioned. As a result, a nut or bolt employing the Batchelor form oflocking device can readily-be reversed and unscrewed at will, no damageis done to the locking wire even by many reversals of its nut or bolt,and little damage' is done to the threads against which the wire endbears; both nut and bolt can be used repeatedly.

While devices so made under the Batchelor patent prior to my inventionare quite satisfactory when the nut and cooperating bolt are reasonablywell mated, difiiculties are sometimes encountered in making a device asdescribed, under factory conditions, that will act uniformly throughoutthe range of tolerances permitted in nuts and bolts as now marketed; if,for example, the metal at l is struck down deep enough in all instancesto secure adequate looking between an oversize nut and an undersizebolt, large stresses aredeveloped in the wire and an unnecessarily deepbiting into the bolt occurs, when the nut happens to be an undersize oneand the bolt cooperating with it is oversize; on the other hand, if themetal at l is struck down in all instances only suificiently to satisfythe condition of an undersize nut screwed onto an oversize bolt, thenthe locking may be insecure where the nut happens to sea sufficientlyoversize one and the bolt sufiiciently undersize. In other words it isdifiicult, with the method of manufacture indicated, to secure suchlockings of the wires as will meet all conditions uniformly. I havediscovered a mode of manufacture however, and an arrangement of parts,whereby the advantages of the locking described are retained but thedisadvantages are eliminated.

I have discovered, first, that it is not necessary that the wire bepermitted to bend laterally, and that such lateral bending is one of thecauses of insecure locking in some instances with these devices asheretofore made. Therefore I preferably give the wire a push fit in itsseat; that is to say, I make the seat hole only just about enough largerthan the wire to permit the wire to be pushed into the hole by hand.This is sufi'i ciently large to permit the seated leg to twist oroscillate in its seat between the anchoring point (6!) and the free leg3, so that advantags can be taken or torsional stresses developed in theseated leg as before, but at the same time the sides of the hole supportthe leg 2 and substantially prevent it bending when the nut or bolt isforcibly turned backwards and the leg 3 thereby thrown to the oppositeside of the bolt. Secondly, I do not attempt to provide each wire withsome certain fixed and predetermined amount of free movement in theintermediate portion of the range of travel of the leg 3 (within the areill), but rather I permit each individual wire to fix for itself such anamount of free and unimpeded movement as may best suit the particularnut and particular bolt with which that nut cooperates, in so far" asmay be necessary. To this end, I generally arrange to make theattachment (e. g., 6l) of the leg 2 to the nut (or bolt) at a point onthis leg that is removed from the juncture of this leg 2 with the otherleg 3 a distance greater than one-half the thickness of the nut in whichthe wire is seated or a standard size nut with which it may be expectedto cooperate; this provides a rather long reach of leg 2 subject to thetorsional stresses, and accordingly, without increasing the torsionalstresses per unit length of seated leg, permits the use of a lesserdegree of free and unimpeded movement than does an anchoring made nearerthe junction point between 2 and 3. Further, I anchor the seated leg 2to the nut firmly, without allowing for any initial free movement of thewire, and I make the anchorage in such a manner that the leg 3 tends tostand in the radial plane 9. For example, I may make the anchoring orattachment of the seated leg 2 to the nut while the ,leg 3 is held inthe radial plane 9 and the leg 2 is allowed to assume any angularposition it wishes within the seat. In effect then, I so anchor the wireinitially as to hold the leg 3 substantially in the medial, radial,plane 9 when this leg is out of engagement with a bolt threaded into thenut, and the leg tends to return to this plane if and. when displacedsomewhat therefrom, with the result that the stresses imposed on thewire when later the leg 3 is thrust to one side of a bolt, aresubstantially equal to the stresses imposed on the wire whensubsequently'the leg 3 is reversed over to the other side of the bolt.In anchoring the wire firmly in the nut however, and particularly in thelarger nuts where larger and heavier wires are used, while I anchor itfirmly as described I do not anchor it so firmly but what the connectionor anchorage can yield somewhat with small use, if and as excessive ordangerous stresses tend to develop in the wire; by wearing therefore,with use, as by the first few turns of the nut on and on the bolt again,a small limited amount of free movement as described above withreference to the arc Ill of Fig. 2, is allowed to develop, if necessary,and before any wire is stressed and fatigued to the breaking point, thewire is allowed to fix for itself a free and unimpeded movementsuflicient to relieve it of dangerous stresses and a free movement bestsuiting the particular nut and particular bolt to which the wire isapplied. Where the anchoring is of the kind shown at 6'l, bringing themetal 1 of the nut right down against the wire to secure this firmattachment serves a second purpose also; it permits the wire itself toact somewhat as a stop to assist in limiting the deformation of the nutto the proper degree. In not all instances however, will the free andunimpeded movement in the mid-range develop; in some nuts the stressesdeveloped may not be sufficient to require a free andunimpededmovementto" relieve thempin such casesno'free and unimpeded movement mayI develop. In the smaller nuts (andbolts) particularly, where Wires ofsmaller diameters and shorter legs .3 are used, there is not somuch needfor .a free mid-range movement as there'isin the. case of the largernuts therein large diameter wires'and rather long locking legs 3 areneeded. With such nuts and bolts the free movement may never appear. Onthe other hand, it may be desirable at times to work'the wires of thelarger sized nuts back and forth until some degree of free movement'isdeveloped for them beforesale of the nuts to users or before the nutsare applied to the bolts with which they are to work. Certain.formations of the non-circular portions 6 of the wire may be employeolto help maintain the proper degree of pressure of the free end of leg 3against the threads, once the properpressurehas been attained. To thisend, for example,XI- prefer to give the depression 6 a non-convex(i..e., a

concave or flat) bottom as represented in Fig.

5, rather'than' the convex bottom of the sort shown in Fig. 7 previouslyemployed; apparently the non-convex surface tendsto give the wire moredefinite limiting positions than is possible to secure with an initiallyconvex bottom; quite possibly too the somewhat sharp edges assist inwearing the cooperating locking'metal to the degree permitting some freeand unimpeded movement in the mid-range of the movement of the leg 3. Itwill be understood however that the non-convex form for the non-circularor anchoring portion of the seated leg 2 is preferred for those nutswherein no development of a freeand unimpeded movement is anticipated,as well as for those in which such'afree movement is intended. Also thisnon-convex formis preferable to the convex form even in those caseswhere a free and unimpeded movement in the mid-range of the leg 3 isprovided for initially, as in the Batchelor patent. Finally, I'havefound'it preferable to reduce the free end of the leg 3, so that thisend can enter deeper between adjacent turns of the thread than astraight out across, the wire would permit. This reducing (i. epmore orless sharpening) of, the end of the wire, permits reducingthetorsionalstresses imposed on the seated leg; it does this both bypermitting the leg 3 to operate closer to the axis of the bolt-and byenabling a lesser pressure of. the leg ,3 against the thread to producea biting'engagement with the thread when the nut r bolt starts to movein the reverse direction. In some instances too it may permit theeffective length of theleg 3 to be reduced .and'thus result in thedevelopment 'of lesser stresses in the wire whenthe leg3 -is forciblythrown over from one side to the other. Preferably this reduction of thefree or biting end of the leg 3 is provided by bevelling the free end atthe side thereof adjacent to or remote from the face of the nut (orbolt) from which thewire projects, 4 in Fig.1, or by bevelling at boththese sides, 5 in Fig. 3. Preferably the bevel (or bevels) substantiallyparallels a face of the thread to be engaged, so that the point ofthewire reaches, or nearly reaches, the bottom 8 of the valley betweenadjacent turns of the thread. Fig.8.

Figures 5 to 11 illustrate my conception of the action of;the-firm yetyielding-with-wear anchorage of the wireof my invention. Itistobeobserved however that it is difficult to determine exactly whatoocursat the anchorage, for nomatter, how thenut is cut open, the act ofcuttingseems to modify theinternal structure, or at least I fear it doesso, and thereforeit may be that none of the following is entirelyaccurate. It will serve however to elaborate the foregoing descriptionof this feature. 1 With the foregoing reservation:

Fig. 5 shows a transverse section of a seated wire. adjacent thedepression 6, and the adjacent part of thenut before. the wire isanchored in place. As theindentation is struck down inthe corner ofthe-nut, conceivably the indented locking metal I may substantially fillthe depression'fi in the'wire as indicated in Fig. 6. Then as the wire 2is forced to turn a few turns, both the wire and the metal of the nutmay beforcedto wear in the manner that will. appear by contrasting Fig.7 with Fig. 6. Usually however I employ ,a ,wiremuch harder than themetal of the nuts; therefore I doubt if the wire usually wears verymuch, except possibly at the extreme edges of the'depression 6 in it.

conceivably therefore Fig. 7 should be modified accordingly.Furthermore, I doubt if the metal of the nut can be sunk as deeply intoand as completely around the non-circular portion of the wire as isindicated in Fig. 6, for the full length in Fig. 9 that is, I believethe point of a small, more or less elongated-conical, nob 20 of nutmetal is extended down into the wire depression 6. By

pressing or striking. down such a nob 20until the L end; of the nob(perhaps somewhatfiattened)- engages against the bottom of the wiredepression 6, the wire may be anchored firmly initially,

While a few violent twists. of the Wire back and .forth, assuming it tobe harder. than the metal .of the nut, will wear orre-mold the tip ofthe nob to something like the shape indicated in Fig. 10 in transversecross section and in Fig. 11 in longitudinal crossesection. It willbeobservedthat the .wire 2 in Figs. 10 and 11 is quite free to oscillate Ithrough a small arc, but that the .main body of the nob or looking metalstrongly restrains oscillation of the wire beyond the limits of suchsmall arc. Preferably, with the larger nuts at least, I

endeavorto strike, down such a nob, 20 until it bears against the bottomof the depression 6, but with such a small tip bearing againstthisbottom that a torsional stress on the seated leg 2 a little lessthan the elastic limit of the leg, will wear or remold the nob in themanner (although not necessarily to the degree) shown inFigs. 10 and 11.In all instances the stresses on the wire are kept belowathe elasticlimit. As an alternative, it is possible .that in endeavoring toprotrude the nob -20 into the depression-Suntil the. bottom begins tomaterially resistfurther protrusion of the nut metal,-the nut metal isnever actually protruded into the depres sion 6 any farther than isindicated (in substances, not necessarily in degree) in Figs. 10 and 11.It is evident that even driving the nutmetal initiallyonly asfar asshown (in substance) in Figs. 10 and 11, causes the nut metal to bearstrongly against the ends 2| of, the de- .pression 6. .It may. be thatthe tightness here gives the; eflect o f the nob Ill-seeming to strikethe bottom of thedepressiomand is the only preventative of.free-movement-of the wire initially; and thatthe wire is freed (when awire is freed) by these end edges 2i sawing (as it were) their,wayintothe nutmetal slightly.

"By way of example, I may mention that I usually make the depth of thedepression 6 in the wire about equal to one-third the diameter of thewire; and usually I make the-length of the depression about equal to thediameter of the wire. It will be understood however that my invention isnot limited to these dimensions,

but that these figures serve simply to indicate 7 the order-ofthedimensions I usually employ; they are subject to variation; forexample, I have used depressions 6 equal to one-half the diameter of thewire, although this permitted (ultimately) somewhat more free movementof the wire than I thought best at the time.

While for the most part I have above described my invention'inconnection with looking wires seated in the nuts, to which it is mostreadily applicable perhaps, and rather peculiarly applicable, it is tobe understood, as I have before indicated, that my invention is notentirely limited to this form; the wires may be seated in the bolts,leaving the free or exposed legs 3 to engagethe threads of thecooperating nuts. It is to be understood also that within the terms nutsand bolts as used above, I include all internally and externallythreaded devices cooperating, generally, in the same manner as true nutsand bolts. By way of example, Fig. 4 illustrates a locking wire seatedin a bolt and the latter screwed into a large block of metal. Whenseated in a bolt 15, the wire may project from one end of the bolt, theleg 2 of the wire being inserted axially of the bolt, but not at thecenter or axial line or the bolt. The free or exposed leg of the wirethen extends toward and efiects biting engagement with the threads ofthe cooperating thread 16 in the manner generally indioated in thisfigure; The 'wire may be locked within the bolt in substantially thesame way as previously describedwith respect to nuts, and in general thefree end .of. the leg 3 cooperates with the thread of a nut in the samemanner as described above with respect to bolts.

In general, my invention is not limited to the details, nor to theembodiments of it, described above, except as appears hereinafter in theclaims. The term threaded member in the claims includes'nuts,threadedbolts, and other threaded devices onto which a nut can bescrewed or into which a threadedbolt can be screwed.

I claim:

1. The combination with a threaded member, of a'resilient angularelement having 'two' legs substantially at right angles to each other,one of said legs being seated in said threaded member and extending awayfrom the other leg substantially parallel to the axis of the threadedmember, and said other leg initially lying in the radial plane passingthrough the seat of said element and extending across the threads ofsaid threaded member'to make locking engagement with athreaded membercooperating with the threaded member in which said element is seated andits free end being provided with a sufficiently wide path of movementextending to both sides of that radial plane of the first'mentionedthreaded member which passes through the leg seated therein, topermitthe free end of said other leg to make locking engagement with thethreads of a cooperating threaded member at both sides of said plane,and means coacting with the seated leg to initially hold said other legsubstantially in said radial plane when said other leg is out ofengagement with a cooperating threaded member and to impose a torsionalstress said means and seated leg coact so weakly that their connectionyields with use to permit the said other leg to have asmalllimitedamount of free movement, adjacent said radial plane, suiting therequirements of the particular threaded members.- I

2. The subject matter of claim 1 further characterized by the fact thatsaid seated leg has a push fit with its seatin the first mentionedthreaded member. i

3. The combination with a threaded member, of a resilient angularelement having two legs substantially at right angles to each other, oneof said legs being seated insaid threaded member and extending away fromthe other leg substantially parallel to the axis of the threaded member,and said other leg initially lying in the radial plane passing throughthe seat of said element and extending across the threads of saidthreaded member tomake locking engagement with a threaded membercooperating with the threaded member in which said element is seated andits free end. being provided with a sufliciently wide path of movement,extending to both sides of thatradial plane of the first mentionedthreaded member which passes through the leg seated therein, to permitthe free end of said other leg to make locking engagement with thethreads of a cooperating threaded member at both sides of said plane,said seated leg being provided with a non-circular portion remote fromits juncture with said other leg, and means coacting between saidnon-circular portion of said' seated leg and the main body of thethreaded member in which said leg is seated to hold said other legsubstantially in said radial plane when said other leg is out ofengagement with a cooperating threaded member and to impose atorsionalstress on said seated leg to cause the free end of said otherleg to make a biting engagement with the-threads of a cooperatingthreaded member with which it may engage, said seated leg having a pushfit with its seat in the first mentioned member from by the fact thatsaid non-circular portion of the.

seated leg is provided by an indentation therein having a non-convexbottom.

5. For locking nut and bolt members or the like, the combination of oneof such members, a resilient angular element having two legs disposedsubstantially at right angles to each other, said one member beingprovided with a seat extending substantially parallel to the axis ofitself adapted to'oscillatably receive one of said legs and the other ofsaid legs initially lying in 10 biting engagement with the thread onsaid other member, characterized by the fact that said means, asinitially coacted with said seated leg,

further restricts the swing of said other leg, but

so weakly restricts the said swing that with use the said means and/orseated leg yield, to permit the said free leg to pass substantiallyunimpeded through said predetermined are of movement,

suiting the requirements of the particular threaded members.

SAMUEL C. DICKERHOFF, JR. 10

